Post-traumatic stress disorder

Joynal, a film director, was scouting locations on the expressway towards Mawa when the car ahead braked and his crew’s car did not. That was two years ago. He still drives the long way round to his studio, adding forty minutes. He sleeps with the light on. When a truck brakes hard outside, he is back on the road, glass in his hair, before he knows it. He tells everyone he is fine.

An illustration drawn from common experience. The person is invented; the pattern is not.

Understanding post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder can follow an extremely threatening or horrific event. WHO describes three core features: reliving the event in the present, through intrusive memories, flashbacks or nightmares; avoiding reminders of it; and a persistent sense of current threat, being constantly on guard and easily startled. These last for weeks or longer and get in the way of ordinary life.

How common is post-traumatic stress disorder?

Around 70% of people worldwide experience a potentially traumatic event in their lifetime, WHO reports, but only a minority, about 5.6% of them, go on to develop PTSD. Overall, 3.9% of the world’s population has had PTSD at some point. Among people exposed to war or conflict, about 15.3% develop it.

Signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder

• Memories, flashbacks or nightmares that make the event feel as if it is happening now
• Going out of your way to avoid places, people or conversations linked to it
• Feeling constantly on alert, jumpy, or unable to relax
• Sleep problems, irritability, difficulty concentrating

Treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder

WHO’s fact sheet names two psychological treatments with the most evidence for PTSD in adults: trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy, and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, known as EMDR. Its 2013 guidelines say these, or stress management, should be considered. Both help the memory become something that happened, rather than something that keeps happening. Medication can help with sleep, depression and anxiety where they come along with it.

What getting better can look like

A good sign, for Joynal, would be the expressway, driven on purpose on the way to a shoot, with his heart racing but his hands steady on the wheel. The memory stays. It stops driving.

Common questions about post-traumatic stress disorder

Does everyone who goes through a trauma get PTSD?

No. Around 70% of people worldwide experience a potentially traumatic event in their lifetime, the World Health Organization reports, and only about 5.6% of them go on to develop PTSD. The risk is higher after some experiences: among people exposed to war or conflict, about 15.3% develop it.

What is EMDR, and is it used for PTSD?

EMDR stands for eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing. The World Health Organization names it, along with trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy, as one of the two psychological treatments with the most evidence for PTSD in adults. Both aim to help the memory become something that happened, rather than something that keeps happening.

When to see a psychiatrist

If you are still reliving an event weeks or months later, or arranging your life around avoiding it, treatment can help, whether it happened last year or long ago.

Care here is personal: built around your history, your health and what you want to change, and reviewed with you as it goes.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to the nearest hospital emergency department.

Sources

• World Health Organization, “Post-traumatic stress disorder” fact sheet, September 2026
• Koenen et al., Psychological Medicine, 2017
• World Health Organization, Guidelines for the management of conditions specifically related to stress, 2013